1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a User Equipment (UE) capability report method and apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reporting the capability of a UE supporting advanced functions such as Carrier Aggregation (CA).
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile communication systems were originally developed to provide subscribers with voice communication services on the move. With the rapid advancement of various technologies, the mobile communication systems have evolved to support high speed data communication services as well as the voice communication services.
Recently, a next generation mobile communication system of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), referred to as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, is under development. The LTE system is a technology for realizing high-speed packet-based communication at about 100 Mbps. Recently, an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system is actively discussed as an evolution of the LTE system. The LTE-A system employs new techniques to increase the data rate. Hereinafter, both the legacy LTE system and LTE-A system are referred to as the LTE system.
The LTE system employs carrier aggregation as one of the significant technologies to meet broader bandwidth requirements. The carrier aggregation is a technology for a User Equipment (UE) to transmit/receive data over multiple carriers. More specifically, the UE transmits/receives data in cells using carriers that are aggregated (for cells under the control of the same evolved Node B (eNB)). This means that the UE transmits/receives data in multiple cells.
The adoption of new technologies brings about a need to modify a capability report format so as to be capable of simultaneously accommodating information on newly introduced technologies such as carrier aggregation as well as legacy technology such as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO).